Liam's Pre-school graduation day

Well this year flew by. I have an almost 1 and a half year old and Liam finished his first year of per school. (Sniff sniff)

He LOVED his teachers this year and they worked so hard with him. He tells me all the time how we need to call Miss Colleen and tell her something...

As always our super supportive pseudo aunt and cousin Molly and Hazel came to watch Liam's big day, and dad was able to slip out of the hospital for a few minutes too!


This is mostly for the grandparent's to see, so don't feel like you have to watch the whole movie, but a funny side note: Liam's teacher said that during the school year Liam didn't really participate when they'd do singing time, but she was shocked come graduation day when he performed like this!

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I guess all he needed was an audience!

Memorial Day fun!

We had a great Memorial day this year. We went to the circus (again.) and the boys loved it. I was a little disappointed but mostly because it was the same show as last years, but Owen was glued until about the last 20 minutes so it gets my vote.














We also went to a fun picnic with some friends. There was good food, good friends and good fun...




The best was slingshotting (is that a word?) fruit snacks and getting to hit a few softballs, something that I haven't done in a really long time!




And a little Hershey Parkin during the long weekend.










Best part of all though was Dad was able to be there for all of it.

I know you wonder what I do all day...

Well today was much like any other day. Owen woke up at 7 am to the deafening sound of the lawn mower guys. Liam slept through the whole thing until 9, and I drug myself out of bed to get O some breakfast.

I have a meeting tonight and have to take a dessert, I scanned through some of my Moms favorite dishes and decided on Rocky Road Brownies.

I made it all from scratch. And I hope it tastes as good as it looks. They have to be with how much butter is in the recipe.


If you want to eat some too, here is the recipe:

Brownie mixture:

1/2 C Butter
1 oz. Square unsweetened chocolate
1 C sugar
1 C flour
1/2-1 C chopped nuts (optional)
1 t Baking powder
1 t vanilla
2 eggs


Topping mixture:

6 oz. pkg cream cheese softened (You'll need the other 2 oz. for the frosting part)
1/2 C sugar
2 T flour
1/4 C butter softened
1 Egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C chopped nuts (Optional)
1 C semi sweet chocolate chips

Frosting Mixture:

2 C miniature Marshmallows
1/4 C butter
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips
Remaining 2 oz. Cream cheese
1/4 C milk
3 C powdered Sugar
1 t Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and Flour a 9x13 baking pan

In a bowl mix together:
1 C sugar
1 C flour
1/2-1 C chopped nuts
1 t Baking Powder
1 t Vanilla
2 eggs

In a microwave safe dish, melt 1/2 C butter and 1 oz. square chocolate in microwave in 30 sec intervals until melted. Then add to brownie mixture. Mix well and pour into the baking pan. (The mixture will be really thick.)

In a small bowl combine the 6 oz. cream cheese with next 5 filling ingredients blend until smooth and fluffy with a hand mixer. Stir in nuts and spread over UNBAKED brownie mixture.
Sprinkle with 1 C semi sweet chocolate chips and bake for 25-30 minutes or until brownies and topping are just set.

While brownies are baking, combine 1/4 C butter, 1/4 C milk, 1/2 C chocolate chips, and 2 oz. of the reserved cream cheese in a large sauce pan. Cook and stir over low heat until smooth and blended (The cream cheese won't melt completely and will look a little curdled looking.)

When brownies are done, pull from oven and sprinkle Marshmallows and return to oven for 2-3 minutes (You just want the Mallows to puff, don't let them to brown of they'll be dry and chewy.)
As soon as you return bars back to oven, add powdered sugar and 1 t. vanilla to cream cheese frosting mixture and beat well with a wire whisk.

When Marshmallows have puffed, remove bars from oven and immediately pour frosting mixture over the marshmallows. With the tip of a knife, gently swirl the frosting and marshmallows together. Cool completely on wire rack, then chill until firm. Store bars in refrigerator. Make 36 bars.

But what was Owen doing while I was baking these beauties?

THIS:
You'd think by now I'd be smart enough not to leave a bag of flour within reach of ole sticky fingers, but NO I'm not. Luckily I had just filled my empty flour canister back up so it wasn't the whole bag, but enough to make a good mess and a trip in the shower for Owen.



















What have I done to deserve such a mischievous, curious, destructive child? If anyone should have one it should be my brother Chris. He's the one who would do stuff like this when he was little, NOT me! Maybe they messed up and I was supposed to get Graham-Bam???
But I doubt it since Graham is the spitting image of Buddy and Owen, Nate. All I can say is Sara: keep your fingers crossed!

And that is what I do on a typical day...

WIOV contest

THIS POST IS ONLY FOR MY FRIENDS HERE IN DUTCH COUNTRY PA! (But you are welcome to read it even if you are not!)

First off, I have a confession to make: I listen to country music regularly. Now that that's off my chest,

Last week I heard a commercial for a "babies firsts" picture contest on WIOV.

The grand prize is 4 tickets to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster that we haven't been to yet. And 2 tickets to the Brad Paisley concert. (Which I'll be taking a friend to, since Nate would rather pour lemon juice in a paper cut than go to a country music concert.)

I figured I'd put in an entry and had the perfect picture of a Liam first when he was 14 months. It was the first time we let him have mashed potatoes and feed himself.



Here is the picture


I got an email today that his picture is one of the top 20 finalists and now it's up to public voting for the winner. WE NEED YOUR VOTE! ( The contest is open to all WIOV-FM listeners who are legal United States citizens 18 years of age or older and who reside in Lancaster, Berks, York, Dauphin and Lebanon Counties in the State of Pennsylvania.)

Here are the ways to vote!

You can do it by going online to WIOV in the what's happening box, click on the "vote for your favorite first box" and vote for Liam online, or via text message by sending a text message with the keyword “DW5” to 62582 – By submitting a text message vote, voters will be automatically enrolled in the Station text club; listeners may opt out of the text club at any time by sending a text message with the word “Stop” to 62582. On June 4, 2009 at 4pm, the eligible entry with the most combined text messages and online votes will be crowned The Big I 105’s Favorite First and win a prize pack from Dutch Wonderland. The five (5) runners up with the most combined text message and online votes received will win the qualifying prize pack. Listeners may vote any time between 12:01pm on May 27^th, 2009 and 4:00pm on June 5^th, 2009.

You are only allowed to Vote ONCE online but as many times as you like by text. If you have an unlimited text plan you can put in as many as you like:)


If you have the time, and wouldn't mind voting I'd really appreciate it! And so would Liam!

Cry me a Mani

I truly have some of the best friends a girl could have. Knowing that today would mark the 7 year anniversary of my mom and sisters (And her friend Jera) death, Many of my friends have called or emailed me to tell me they were thinking of me. (I even got the cutest fleur de Lis bag full of goodies from Molly. See not everything is bad about the 24th!) I REALLY appreciate it! It does make such a difficult day easier to bear.

You'd think that after 7 years that time would have healed my wounds, and that life would have gone on without them, but truth be told, there is still not a single day that I don't miss them, or want to call my Mom and tell her about some funny thing that Liam said, or the mischievous thing that Owen did and see how she dealt with things like chocolate drool that won't come out of my favorite white shirt that I have now washed 15 times and nothing seems to want to get that brown hue out...

I've been having a bunch of dreams lately with one or both of them in, (But this always happens in May since there is some constant reminder that they are gone.)

I like these dreams. Even if they make no sense, or that they aren't real, it makes me feel like I've actually talked to them or seen them, but it also makes me realize how much I have forgotten about them.


I'll NEVER forget Mom had a scratchy voice and the most contagious laugh, but I forget some day's what it truly sounded like. (But lucky for me my sis-in-law is a close second and every once in awhile I hear a glimmer of it come out of myself. I've even turned around before, sure that it was Val and realized that it was me who had made that scratchy noise.) Maybe next year I will try to find a clip for you all to hear!

Ali, my beautiful little sister who looked like she was 25 at 17. Some people say we looked alike. (But she got the good genes.) I see some similarities, but I know we talked the same. We'd actually fool people all the time. Even our boyfriends fell for it a few times. And she would have been such a good aunt and mother. I've watched our cousins who were all the same age and went to high school together, grow up, serve missions, get married and I'm sure will shortly have babies, and that is the hardest part. She was so good with kids and would have been a really good Mom. She definitely got
screwed out of that part of life.
(this is a picture of her and her best friend Erin.)


Anyways, it has become a tradition that I go get a pedicure (or manicure now) on the anniversary each year,
1-because I need to do something fun
2- I know it is something that I would be doing with my Mom trying to cheer her up since her own mother passed away and there is nothing like a good pedi or mani to make those blues disappear.

My darling friend Kristen called and said this year she wanted to take me to the Hotel Hershey Spa for a real treat.

We had a fantastic lunch, and got the perfect French tipped maniucres. But best of all I was able to spend a few hours with a person I'd love to have as a sister and enjoy those few hours just talking and getting pampered.

Nate is always so sweet to me around this time of year. He knows I'm walking a fine line and could fall at any moment and supports this tradition by watching the kids so I can get out. I came home to some beautiful flowers and the boys fed and ready for bed.

I just want to put it out in cyber space, (Who knows, maybe they have internet in heaven?)

That I love and miss my two best friends more than anything. That each May I feel this black cloud come rolling in and know that I will have to reflect on the fact that another year has come and gone, as well as another memory of them.
But that I know I will get to see them again someday. I've decided I will punch them really hard first for leaving me like they did, but lucky for me I have the most wonderful Dad and three brothers a sister could ask for. I am so blessed to have them, (Oh and their wives who are more than just Sister-in-laws, a wonderful family of in-laws, a new step family, Friends, Aunts, Cousins, A Husband and two little boys that help fill a big part of that void.)

Here is to all of you for being a part of my life. I love you all!

Only Owen

This kid: I took him to his well baby check up and he is OFF the charts for his height, and is doing better than average for the other skills a 16 month old can do. The Doctor told me that with "this type of child," it's the parent who has to keep up, not the child. I totally agree!

He is a climber! I find him all the time destroying the only plant I've been able to keep alive for longer than a month (Almost a year now:) But this plant sits atop my glass kitchen table top.

He also has an OBSESSION with the toilet. I wish I could say that he wanted to learn to use it, but it's not that kind of a relationship! It's a relationship of: lets see what I can put in the toilet today obsession.

Currently for some reason he loves putting Liam's Madagascar toys in the bowl. He hasn't tried to flush them (YET!) I want to toss the toys, but Liam freaks out, so it's a soak in bleach and a quick air dry, and then we start the cycle all over again.



Anyone have tips on how to control a mischievous child who thinks the words: Don't, stop, & NO mean do whatever you are doing, faster, harder or longer!

Oh and I am here to tell you from experience, Cheeto dust does NOT come out of the carpet easily!

Nothin a little Diego can't fix

The other day I had a really bad headache and was worried that it was going to turn into migraine, so I went to lay down for a bit. Liam got really concerned and was in my bed stroking my arm and telling me, "Oh Mama, you going to be OK." I told him thanks and then all of a sudden he dashes out of the room and comes back running with a Diego band aid in hand.

He says, "Mama, I know how to fix your head! We forgot to put on a band aid." He then puts it on, gives me a kiss and says, "see, all better!."

And you know, I did feel better!

Another funny Liam story:

While Bryn was here, we explained to him that she had a baby growing in her tummy and he even got to feel him kick. I showed him some pictures in one of my maternity books of how a baby grows and fits inside a moms tummy.

A few days later, we went into a maternity store. They had one of those belly pillows that make you look a few more months pregnant. (But they need butt and arm pillows too, maybe it's just me, but those seem to grow along with the belly.)

Anyways, I tied the pillow onto Liam and pulled his shirt down. He thought it was really funny and was prancing around the store.

A little while later he is in the dressing room with Bryn and starts to cry. I pull back the curtain to see what's the matter, he looks up with big tears in his eyes and says: I don't want a baby in my tummy!!" Sob, sob, sob. He grabs onto his tummy and says it hurts. I then notice that there is an unpleasant smell and ask him if he needs to go "stinkies" and he says, "Yeah, I do." I take him and it turns out his tummy was a little sick, and that it was gas pain, not baby kicks that he was feeling. I explained to him that he will NEVER have to have a baby in his tummy and that only girls can have babies. He was really relieved and couldn't get out of the store fast enough!

Poulson Parlor part deux

My dear pregnant, and oh so talented friend Bryn came for a visit to the land of Chocolate. While she was here, we did the Poulson Parlor again. She did hair for three days. With a total of 14 Cut/Colors and 5 haircuts. Seriously amazing!

I think we had over 20 kids at my house during the week, and Thanks to my sweet hubby, the house looked clean and kid less after each night.

The week went by all too quickly and I'm not sure if she will make it back for another go around after Baby boy Allred has come. But it was so good to see her, and my hair is eternally grateful to her!







I am still finding hair every time I sweep, but it's a small price to be paid for beauty.

It wasn't all work while she was here. We did a little site seeing around Harrisburg one day, and then we went down to D.C. for a quick day of touring there.


The boys loved the metro ride, Bryn and I had to see the dresses of the first ladies, and I've decided that I don't have to have the hope diamond, this other perfect 14 carat one will be just fine.

















But by far my two favorite pictures are these two:



I told Liam to give Owen a big squeeze. I guess next time I'll phrase it differently.


And to keep the beast at bay, we bought a chocolate chip cookie to make him happy and forget that he was riding in a stroller. We gave it to him and continued on our way until a few passerby's started laughing and making comments. This is what I found.



















A real Life Cookie Monster!

SUPER PARTY!

I've had multiple people ask me when I was going to put up pics from Liam's Super Why party. Well, here they are! Not that exciting, but he loved it! Anyone else planning a Super Why party let me know I've all you need and more! To start off, since there is nothing out there commercially for Super Why I had to do it all on my own.

To do the perfect Super Why party you: 1-only invite a few guests (why? You'll see. Here are our Super Readers!)


2- Use your 50% coupon at JoAnns to buy your cape fabric.
3- Start about a month ahead unless you can really sew! I made each boy a Super Why cape that had the Super Why book logo on the back, Then I did a Superman Logo on the other so they could be a different super hero if needs be! Then I made masks and I got those Extra Large pencils, covered them in construction paper, cut out a red ? and super glued it and viola! You now have a Why writer.

For the Girls, They were Princess Pea. They got pink capes. One side with a princess crown and the other Supergirl. I also got them wands and a princess tiara.

The capes took a long time to make, but I just worked on them here and there for the month so it didn't seem so bad. The worst part was hand sewing the Velcro on. The needle would get all sticky from the adhesive and make it hard to pull so get the non-adhesive kind. My finger still has a hole in it! Next for the games:

I was able to take in a coloring page to a print shop and had them enlarge it like 3oox's, so it was about 3 feet tall. I had to hand color Super Why, but he turned out really cute!

I also had them photo copy just the eyes at the same magnification in green cardstock then cut out individual masks.

Then we played pin the mask on Super Why! The kids thought this was really funny!

We also did musical chairs to Alpha Pigs ABC song. Sam was the winner due to a very sweet Connor who let her be the champion.
Here is the video so cute, they loved singing along with the song!

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And the Champion!










Then it was present time. All the kids were so excited to show Liam what they had gotten him. He has some great friends! He's had so much fun with all his new things, and so has Owen much to Liam's annoyance!





Then I told the kids I couldn't remember what came next at a birthday party. And that we had to transform into the Super Readers. This is when we brought out the capes...






While we opened present's Nate put our "Super Letters" outside and then we had the kids find them and bring them to Nate.

Once they were all found, we put them into our Super Duper Computer and got our Super Birthday Answer.



Which was:














I do things a little backwards, I've never really like cake cause I'm not a big fan of Icing so I've always had ice cream cake for my birthdays, well since I didn't want to make the cake, the wonderful mother daughter duo at Dairy queen helped make the perfect Super Why ice cream cake and I did Mini cupcakes with the other Characters stuck into them.
























Owen was a HUGE fan!
















And after everyone went home, this is what happened at our house!



Thanks to all who helped me and for all his cute little friends, they are what made the party so much fun!

Here, Owen Owen.

I CAVED! What can I say? I remember a few years ago going to busy places and seeing those parent's who had "tethered" their kid to their wrist. I thought. "Seriously you can't watch your kid without having him attached to a leash?"

Well, my apology's!

I am now ONE OF THOSE parent's!

Liam wasn't like Owen. If I turned around too suddenly when he was a toddler, I would knock him over due to him being attached at my hip, so it was never a worry that he'd wander more than an inch from my side.

Owen however is a WHOLE DIFFERENT story! If I turn my back for longer than two seconds he is gone! Poof! vanished into thin air. Or I am running after him to save him from immediate death. He believes he's invincible, or that his Mom is Super Woman and can catch him with one finger while pushing the grocery cart, balancing that carton of eggs and keeping Liam from opening some toy he's found in the checkout, all at the same time.

Well With Spring comes the preview opening of Hershey Park. Any Mother who has a child like Owen starts to sweat at the thought of taking him to a HUGE public place with rides, candy, water, kids, toys, strollers, and his new fascination of having to walk EVERYWHERE now that he can walk.

So to make it easier on both of us I bought said "tether." But to make me feel better, and every other parent I will call it his buddy backpack. It's shaped like a monkey and the tail is the leash, but when the child outgrows the Houdini stage, you can remove the leash and it become a stylish backpack with a little pocket that you could fit, well not more than a pack of mini raisins in.
But really it's not inhumane! It's good parenting. And a bonus, Liam and his friends think they have their very own dog that they get to cart around HP. WIN! WIN!

We didn't get a picture, but Liam has been asking now for a year if he could go on a real coaster. Unfortunately they are for Reese's and above height only! We even tried putting his tallest shoes on last year but he still didn't make the cut.

But not this year, his head barely touches the dividing line, so we did a parent swap (You can both stand in line together, then one parent takes Liam while the other tries to keep Owen from jumping onto the tracks, then you switch.)

Nate took Liam for the first ride and I was a little worried. Liam isn't the bravest of kids, in fact he cries over just about anything, but I guess he's a thrill seeker. He LOVED it! as soon as they pulled back into the station he starts screaming, "Now you ride with me Mama, we go again!" And to be honest it was a good ride! When we got off a mom behind me says to her 8 year old, "I remember when we took you on this ride for the first time, but you weren't near as happy as his is, in fact, you were crying and told us you hated us and that you'd never ride another roller coaster again." I laughed then patted Liam on the head. That's my boy! The next words out of his mouth were now can I go on that one? The great Bear that is one of the ones where your feet dangle and you go upside down a million times. "I want to go upside down!"

Sorry buddy! You have to be a Jolly Rancher for that one. But one day!

See an enjoyable time had by all!

Spring has sprung...

Well sort of.

If there is anything that Hershey does really well, it's the egg hunts. There are about a million of them here! They are all supplied by the Hershey company. (Imagine that!) But hey I'll gladly take mini cadbury eggs, caramel eggs, and Hershey kisses for free anytime!

However this particular hunt, was FREEZING! It was seriously so cold. I had never been happier that my boys were in the first two "heats" so we could collect our goods and be on our way!

This was Owen's first hint and he actually really enjoyed it.

Liam however was all over it and collected those eggs like uncle Sam collects your taxes!

Long Overdue!

All I can say is that I must have a few things better to do than blogging going on recently, since I haven't posted in a bit. I am busily getting ready for Liam's SUPER WHY party for his Birthday. (Yes that's right, Super Why! Another PBS kids show that he really likes. It actually has some educational content so I feel OK that this is his current like.)

I decided to make the kids all capes for their take home "prize" they have been really time consuming but turned out AWESOME in my opinion. I'm not totally done yet, but will post some pics when I am.

I found this great tutorial to help me with them at Puking Pastilles See my kid isn't the only one who want's to be Super Why! Thanks Georgia for this great idea!

We celebrated St. Pattys day with Green eggs and Ham, Green shirts NO pinches! And even slept in Green Jammies that night just to be safe!

Then I got to "Use" my Valentines day gift from Nate: An overnight trip up to New York to meet up with Nate's Mom and do New York with no kids!

It was great! It started out a little scary. I took Nate's car so he'd have the car seats and when I dropped my boys off at my friends house (Whom by the way also made it possible for me to go by watching my boys for the whole day, even though she was pregnant sick and tired. THANKS KRISTEN!)

And another Thanks to Eden for watching my boys the following day as well as her three! I have some serious pay backs in the future, but it was worth it!

When I went to get back in the car it wouldn't start and I had to make a detour to Auto Zone and then found out that I needed to stop by a mechanics cause we'd waited so long to replace the battery that acid warped the nut on the bolt to the point that they couldn't get it off.

I drove to said mechanics, he ended up cutting of the cables and putting a new one on and the best part was he felt sorry for me and did it all for free! THANKS MR. MECHANIC you made my day!

Then I was off and drove to Newark, hopped on the NJ transit and met a happy MIL at Penn station. Unfortunately the weather was horrible! It was raining for part of this day and freezing cold, but that didn't stop us!

We walked around for a bit to central park and times square then got ready for the play we saw that night: In the Heights. It rocked! And we had awesome seats. Thanks Marie for my first Broadway experience it was a blast!

The next morning it was snowing. That's right snowing, but only for a bit. We took a mild cab to china town, bartered for a new Dolce and Gabanna look alike purse and Tiffany's jewelry, then walked the "Marie Mile" (More like 3, but was needed!) Looked through a few SOHO shops on the way then packed up and hopped back on the NJ transit, to the car and back to Hershey.
We then got to spend a few days with Nana doing some fun things like going to Lancaster to make pretzels, Kitchen kettle Village for some fudge, An Amish Buggy ride, Liam took the reigns. A visit to Chocolate world for a traditional cow ride visit, And a visit to the local Fire station for PG. Whew. And that was just writing it all.